Punjab: Contractor held for ‘misappropriating’ funds in judicial complex project
Identified as Lakhwinder Singh, managing director of Tung Builders Private Limited, Gurdaspur, the accused had been absconding for more than three months, says a spokesperson of the Vigilance Bureau.
The Vigilance Bureau (VB) has arrested a private contractor for allegedly misusing public funds allocated for construction of district judicial complex in SBS Nagar. Identified as Lakhwinder Singh, managing director of Tung Builders Private Limited, Gurdaspur, the accused had been absconding for more than three months.
An official spokesperson of the VB said the public works department (PWD) had issued tenders in 2017 for construction of judicial court complex in SBS Nagar and the work was awarded to the said firm on August 3 that year. The project was to be completed within 18 months at the cost of ₹35.19 crore.
Later, the PWD had increased the project’s scope by adding parking and residential quarters for judges within the complex, raising the cost to ₹65.91 crore. However, the contractor failed to complete the work within the stipulated time. “Despite this, officials/employees of the Nawanshahr PWD colluded with accused Lakhwinder Singh and paid approximately ₹53 crore to Tung Builders Private Limited till March 2023. “Due to the non-completion of the project within the agreed time frame, the allotment was terminated in May 2023 by the department and a four-member committee was constituted to investigate the misuse of allocated funds,” the VB spokesperson stated.
The committee’s report had revealed that due to the negligence of eight PWD officials, an overpayment of ₹11.50 crore had been made to the firm. “Based on this report, a case has registered against eight officials along with said contractor under Sections 406, 409 and 420 of the IPC and Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act at the Sadar police station, Nawanshahr,” it added.
Three executive engineers were also indicted. According to a probe conducted by the PWD, undue favours were given to the contractor in the form of price escalation, performance security, excess payment, payment of variation and release of bank guarantee even as the work for the building was not complete. Later, the PWD had floated a fresh tender worth ₹11 crore to complete the project.
In this case, further investigation is under progress and raids are being conducted at the residential and other locations of the remaining absconding accused, the spokesperson added.